Wednesday, August 12, 2009

EPA approves use of trees as part of stormwater strategy in CSO; Louisville, KY

MSD to buy thousands of trees | courier-journal.com | The Courier-JournalLouisville is about to get a lot greener. The Metropolitan Sewer District will spend $500,000 through next June and plans another $1 million in the following two years to plant as many as 10,000 trees.“After the double whammy of the windstorm and ice storm, our community saw terrible damage to our tree canopy,” said Kerri Richardson, spokeswoman for Mayor Jerry Abramson. “The scale of this project is staggering — thousands upon thousands of new trees—– and it couldn't arrive at a better time. This is a project that will return benefits for decades".Sewers and trees may seem like an odd combination, but MSD views the effort as one way to help prevent rain from flooding the system and sending sewage overflowing into Beargrass Creek and the Ohio River.A settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires MSD to reduce sewage overflows, and MSD has proposed an $850 million plan to tackle the problem by 2024 — including money for the trees.